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Thursday, 24 July 2014

Dymocks 2014 Top 101 Books List | Reading

A couple of months ago I was in my local Dymocks buying a few books (just browsing if Dave asks!) and I got to chatting with the owner about the new Top 101 List. For those who don't know, the Dymocks Top 101 Books list is an annual poll of people in the BookLover Club asking them to name their favourite books. As with any kind of poll that relies on people to nominate their favourite something, the results will vary wildly. Taste is subjective, as I've written about before.

So anyway, I got chatting to Lynne about how hard it was to choose three books from the Top 101 list to buy (they have a 3 for 2 offer on, so of course I had to get 3!). The thing is, it wasn't because they were all such great books that I wanted to buy the lot. The problem was, the list was pretty similar to the previous few years lists and I had read the vast majority of them. The ones I haven't already read? Probably never will.

We talked about how there would always be the same titles showing up because they were just great reads, series like Harry Potter and classics like To Kill a Mockingbird. They are always going to find themselves in a list of favourite books.

Then there are the titles that inevitably find their way on to the list because of current affairs - they've been re-released for an anniversary, the final book in a series has come out, or they've just been made in to a movie. All of those things definitely have a bearing on the books that make it on to the list.

I suggested to Lynne that maybe their should be two lists. One for people's all-time favourite books, and a second one, where people list their favourite books published in the last 12 months. The idea being that a second list featuring only newer titles would allow book lovers to find books they may have missed but that have been loved by other like-minded readers.

Most of the people who are part of the Dymocks BookLover program are genuine book lovers who read lots of books through the year. They read for the sheer joy and pleasure of it, and don't restrict themselves in the types of books they read. I think that by having a second newer release list would be a great way of giving titles promotion. Plus, passionate readers have an easy way to see what other readers have been loving throughout the year. It would be a great way to find new titles and new authors to give a go.

In case you're interested, I've listed the books in this year's Dymocks 2014 101 Club list, and you can find the titles that were on last year's list here. I've bolded the ones I've already read and added links to the ones I've reviewed/mentioned on the blog...

Dymocks 2014 Top 101 Club List

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
2. The Fault in our Stars by John Green
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
5. The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
6. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
8. The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
9. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
10. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
11. Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon
12. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
13. The Divergent series by Veronica Roth
14. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
15. Magician by Raymond E. Feist
16. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
17. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
18. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
19. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
20. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
21 Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody
22. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
23. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
24. A Fortunate Life by A. B. Facey
25. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
26. Animal Farm by George Orwell
27. The Infernal Devices series by Cassandra Clare
28. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
29. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
30. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
31. Angelfall by Susan Ee
32. A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin
33. Paper Towns by John Green
34. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
35. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
36. The Bible37. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
38. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
39. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
40. A Thousand Spendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
41. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
42. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
43. Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James
44. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
45. Knife of Letting Go by Patrick Ness
46. Middlemarch by George Eliot
47. The Mortal Instrument series by Cassandra Clare
48. Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
49. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
50. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
51. The Host by Stephanie Meyer
52. The Messenger by Markus Zusak
53. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
54. The Passage by Justin Cronin
55. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
56. IQ84 by Haruki Murakami
57. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
58. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
59. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
60. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
61. Looking for Alaska by John Green
62. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
63. Ender's Game by Scott Orson Card
64. Ice Station by Matthew Reilly
65. Shantaram by David Gregory Roberts
66. Wool by Hugh Howey
67. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
68. Tully by Paullina Simons
69. Tomorrow, When the War Began series by John Marsden
70. The Girlwith the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
71. The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
72. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
73. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
74. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
75. All That I Am by Anna Funder
76. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
77. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
78. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
79. The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling
80. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
81. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
82. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
83. Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
84. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
85. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
86. Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin
87. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
88. One Day by David Nicholls
89. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
90. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
91. Rivers of London by ben Aaronovitch
92. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
93. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
94. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
95. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
96. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
97. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
98. The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
99. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
100. Persuasion by Jane Austen
101. The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert(I apologise if I have gotten any out of order, but I have typed them out from a very non-user friendly list! Oh, and just so you know, this post is in no way sponsored and I am in no way affiliated with Dymocks, I just love talking about books, sponsored or not!)

So, what do you think? Do you reckon their would be value in having two lists, one for all-time favourites and one for new releases from the last 12 months? Are any of your favourites on the list?

You can check out the 2013 list and the NEW 2015 list by clicking on the images below...

This signals to me I need to get my read on actually. I just haven't read enough on that list and that's such a cultural crime! I think there should be 2 lists definitely! I wanna know what's hot on the streets too. I also agree with Beck below, Burial Rites - a modern day classic. Brilliantly written. Read it xx

I've read 43 of the books but the list lost me when I saw 50 shades on it. :-/ Loved Harry Potter and have re-read it several times. Would also recommend Fault in our stars and Looking for Alaska by John Green. Boy in the striped pyjamas was also heartbreakingly beautiful. Gone Girl is a good psychological thriller.

The Fault in our Stars is on my 'to read' list. I've heard such wonderful things... I just need a moment or two and open eyelids! And I do like the idea of two lists, actually. Sometimes the same ol' titles (despite their greatness) gets a little tiresome. X

I don't know how they manage to nail it down to 101 books. And I agree - I would have 2 lists - all time faves and recent faves. I've downloaded The Book Thief on my Kindle. I think it's time to start on that baby :)

I love the 101 list. Like you I've read the vast majority of them but it also makes me realise I've read a whole lotta books in my time! I do want to get onto the Divergent series though, haven't read that yet.